During the second week of July, I spent three days at Troy State University being a chaperone to nine young women at Youth Conference. Dancing until midnight, eating in a cafeteria and having to share a bathroom with four other people were a few of the things that made me re-live those BYU days of long ago!
We met four other LDS Stakes there and had a total of 428 youth and 165 adult leaders. The stakes involved with our Youth Conference were Mobile Alabama Stake, Tallahassee Florida Stake, Pensacola Florida Stake, Ft. Walton Beach Florida Stake, and Panama City Florida Stake. Except for the time we spent in Utah, I had never seen so many LDS Youth in one place all at one time standing for the same truths here in the South that they have there in Utah! What a feeling! It was simply amazing!
I guess what it really all comes down to is that we hope the two weeks we spent traveling the east coast this summer will be something our children remember for a very long time. 
We hope that it opened their minds to the idea of how big and powerful the world really is.... to how diverse and fragile our lives sometimes are especially here in America... and how precious the time we spend together as a family really can be when we set aside the time to put away the hustle of the world around us and just focus on each other for a time.
Without computers, iPods, and PS2 games. Without all the phone calls and pager beeps. Short simple conversations about everything we could think of to a mere conversation about nothing at all. Holding hands and lingering closely together under a deep blue sky. Seeing a smile on the face of a child as she learns something for the very first time or remembers a silly tale from the past. 
We couldn't get over Korea Town! Kenny's 2nd grade teacher - Ms. Nik had never even been there! We spent several hours there walking through the markets, bookstores, bakeries, and outdoor shopping carts. Everything was exactly as if we were back in Seoul, Korea. We ate Melona bars, Pot Bing Soo, and had a Korean BBQ dinner at a restaurant that cooked the meat for you on a burner in the center of our table.
In Chinatown we found a small hole in the wall type of place that served the BEST chinese food! It was located in the basement of a large apartment building. When we were done eating and walked out the door of the basement entrance there was a line of people out on the street waiting to get in. I guess we had gotten there just in time to beat the rush! 
NBC studios was a fun place to stop and visit. Too bad they weren't in need of any more audience members for shows like SNL and Conan O'Brien!
While in NYC we toured the World Trade Center site where they are building a memorial to honor all the people who died during 9/11. A tall chain link fence surrounds the deep cut hole where the twin towers once stood.
There was a unique quietness there as we stood and read the names of the people who died in the attack. In the corner lay a clump of flowers with a handwritten note from a child that read, "Happy Father's Day" and "I love you".
We used several different modes of transportation on our two week trip. Automobile, Trolley, Ferry, Train, Tram, Railway, Subway, and good old fashioned walking. The favorite seemed to be the Ferry boats and the trains. As we found out on our trip to Disney World last spring, sightseeing the various different places can add several steps to our daily excercise routine! I wonder how many miles we clocked this trip?
After a long hot day of traveling we certainly took advantage of the hotel swimming pools! Did we mention that we ran into a celebrity while in Manhattan? As we walked by the NBC studios...out walked David Hasselhoff! We caught him just in time to snap a photo! Arnold and I recognized him from Knight Rider. The kids recognized him from "America's Got Talent" and of course who can forget that he was on "Baywatch"?
We spent our first day in NYC taking the ferry boat out to Ellis Island and touring the Statue of Liberty. We met Kenny's 2nd grade teacher, Ms. Nikolakis there. She filled in as our personal tour guide for the day! She spends the summer months working as a part-time nanny for several large hotels in NYC. Her job the night before we met was for the Producer of the broadway show "The Producers". She watched their daughter while they went to a show and met some friends for dinner! Wonder if she could get Lisa involved with that gig?!
We spent the second half of the day touring Manhattan. Times square was one of our favorite. The kids stopped to pet a Police horse that was on the side of the road. They couldn't figure out why the policemen wouldn't let them feed the horse an apple like they do here at our neighbors house! We also stopped by the Manhattan Toys R Us store. They had a full sized working Ferris Wheel in the lobby of the store! Unbelievable!
Arnold remembers hearing his dad talk about the man this statue portrays. We spent several hours at the Power Vista Visitor Center in Niagara Falls, NY learning about how the water flow from the falls generates power for the entire area.
We couldn't resist getting a picture by this sign before we walked over Rainbrow bridge to Ontario, Canada. Half way across there was an American Flag, a light pole, and then a Canadian Flag. A plaque on the walkway showed us exactly where the border ended and began again. It cost nothing to enter the Canadian side from the American side, but upon our return we had to put 50 cents into a turnstyle in order to return to the states.
While in NY we had the opportunity to tour Niagara falls both on the Ontario, Canada side and the New York side. We took a boat tour called Maid of the Mist that allowed us to view the crashing water from right underneath Horseshoe falls. Then we joined a walking tour that took us right underneath Bridal Veil falls where Lisa and Kenny enjoyed standing on what the workers nicknamed "Hurricane Deck". Jessica and I were content to watch from afar. Needless to say we were all soaking wet by days end. The observation deck on the NY side allowed for us to view the falls from 200 ft in the sky. 
The Canada side was our favorite as it had a better view of both falls as well as the novelty of being able to go through customs and take the kids on their first "out of country" tour! It felt strangely good when the customs agent on the America side checked our paper work, looked up at us and simply said, "Welcome home." While in Canada we spent the evening watching the sunset and the falls slowly illuminate with different colors of the rainbow and then to end the day we stood on one of the observation decks and watched a 20 minute fireworks program set off over Horseshoe falls. The view was perfect! What a great end to a funfilled day!
Several different times throughout the trip and since we've been home we've had the occasion to hear what the kids say was the best part of the trip. Each time Arnold and I hear them express their excitement about being in the Sacred Grove our hearts just melt. 
We have a fun family tradition in that whenever we travel and wherever we go we take the time to find the nearest LDS temple to take a picture in front of for the kids. When Arnold and I were growing up in the church you could basically name all the temples located throughout the world without any problem.
Now that the church has some 121 temples and counting it has been fun for us to collect pictures of the children in front of temples all across the country. Palmyra NY was no exception!
We made it down from the trail to the visitor center and almost walked right into a caterpillar that was hanging in mid air from a thread of cocoon web maybe? 
We had to stop and take a look at it. It made for a very interesting picture.
Up near the Hill Cumorah Monument we noticed a large moth just sitting at the base of the steps of the monument. It seemed to capture their attention and they soon found a way to scoop it up and hold it in their hands.
Somehow where ever we went Kenny was able to find critters that needed a home. By the time we arrived back in Mobile we had collected or seen a moth, a large double eyed butterfly, a caterpillar hanging from the sky, a multi colored dragonfly, a snake, a bunny, lizards, catfish, and several deer.
As our tour of Hill Cumorah came to an end we walked the nature trail leading from the monument at the top of the hill down to the visitor center.
